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Porter sticks to cautious approach with Altuve

Porter sticks to cautious approach with Altuve

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Altuve's two-run single 0:59

7/30/13: Jose Altuve singles to left field, scoring Matt Dominguez and Robbie Grossman to give the Astros a 2-0 lead in the third

By Brian McTaggart
/
MLB.com |

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Astros continue to play it cautious with second baseman Jose Altuve, who was held out of the starting lineup for Friday's series opener against the Twins for the second game in a row with a sore left quadriceps muscle.

Altuve, hitting .284 with four homers, 34 RBIs and 26 stolen bases, was able to take batting practice and complete his normal drills, and he could have played, but manager Bo Porter and head athletic trainer Nate Lucero opted to rest him.

"It's one of those things, you don't want this to linger the rest of the season, and you want to go ahead and get it taken care of," Porter said. "Nate and I just leaned towards the side of getting it taken care of. He was able to get multiple days of rest, and once he gets back in the lineup, he can put it behind him."

One of the risks with putting Altuve into the lineup when he's not 100 percent is that he runs the risk of aggravating the injury.

"It's extremely hard," Porter said. "When you talk to Altuve, he's like, 'No, I can play, I can play, I can play.' He only knows one way to play, so it's not like you say, 'OK, look, be easy when you're on the bases.' He's just not that kind of guy that can hit a switch and play a different way. We kind of had to take it out of his hands."